These are the history-defining moments that shaped 2020

In Beirut, Lebanon, government mismanagement led to an ammonium nitrate explosion at the capital city’s port that killed nearly 200 people, wounded 6,500, and left 300,000 homeless.Millions of people rose up against police brutality and systemic racism in the U.S. after several police killings of Black people, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. But the first doses of a vaccine are expected to be rolled out within weeks, offering hope for the new year.These are the moments that will be etched into history, seen through the lenses of National Geographic photographers.A doctor’s personal protective equipment (PPE) is strewn on the ground outside a hospital in La Louviere, Belgium. Here, journalists in yellow vests duck to avoid a police water cannon aimed at protesters and bystanders.(From: Hong Kong mourns the end of its way of life as China cracks down on dissent)Medical professionals at the Republican Medical Center in Stepanakert tend to a wounded combatant fighting on the Armenia side of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.(Read more about the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict)Lauren Stocker and her daughters pause in front of the portrait of the four women Supreme Court justices at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. a day after Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s state funeral in September.(From: See how Americans are mourning Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the nation's capital)This year, Matilda McCrear was identified as the last known survivor of the last known slave ship. She was brought to the U.S. aboard the Clotilda as a two-year-old in 1860, and is believed to be buried in an unmarked grave at the Martin Station Cemetery near Safford, Alabama.(From: The last slave ship survivor and her descendants identified)Black Lives Matters demonstrators congregate outside the Barclays Center in New York City as they prepare to march over the Brooklyn Bridge.(From: Systemic racism and coronavirus are killing people of color.